Buffalo Grove vs Waukegan

A side-by-side comparison of Buffalo Grove and Waukegan: population, income, housing, and more.

Buffalo Grove and Waukegan are places in Illinois. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Waukegan has the higher population (88,919 vs 42,824 in Buffalo Grove). Buffalo Grove has the higher median household income ($129,820 vs $70,578 in Waukegan). Buffalo Grove has the higher median home value ($392,900 vs $177,600 in Waukegan).

Population, income & housing

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
Population	42,824	88,919
Median age	42.1 yrs	34.6 yrs
Median household income	$129,820	$70,578
Median home value	$392,900	$177,600
Median gross rent	$2,042	$1,163
Housing units	16,567	32,842
Homeownership rate	81.5%	50.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	66.6%	21.0%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
Population	41,062 → 42,824 (+4.3%)	87,297 → 88,919 (+1.9%)
Median household income	$115,951 → $129,820 (+12.0%)	$49,803 → $70,578 (+41.7%)
Median home value	$332,300 → $392,900 (+18.2%)	$132,200 → $177,600 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,643 → $2,042 (+24.3%)	$960 → $1,163 (+21.1%)

Buffalo Grove

Population

41,06242,824

Median household income

$115,951$129,820

Median home value

$332,300$392,900

Median gross rent

$1,643$2,042

Waukegan

Population

87,29788,919

Median household income

$49,803$70,578

Median home value

$132,200$177,600

Median gross rent

$960$1,163

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
Under 5	5.6%	5.5%
5 to 17	19.1%	18.6%
18 to 24	7.0%	10.8%
25 to 34	8.3%	15.6%
35 to 44	15.4%	13.5%
45 to 54	15.5%	12.6%
55 to 64	13.7%	11.6%
65 to 74	9.6%	7.6%
75 and over	5.9%	4.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
White (non-Hispanic)	58.6%	18.1%
Black or African American	3.7%	15.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	28.2%	5.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.9%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.4%
Hispanic or Latino	6.3%	57.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
No high school diploma	3.2%	23.5%
High school graduate	10.0%	30.0%
Some college or associate's	20.2%	25.4%
Bachelor's degree	37.5%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	29.2%	6.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
Drove alone	62.1%	69.9%
Carpooled	4.5%	17.2%
Public transit	3.2%	2.5%
Walked	0.5%	0.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	28.5%	6.7%
Other means	1.2%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
1-unit, detached	53.9%	51.4%
1-unit, attached	13.8%	7.0%
2 to 4 units	4.7%	13.6%
5 to 19 units	12.9%	14.7%
20 or more units	14.3%	13.1%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Buffalo Grove	Waukegan
Poverty rate	6.5%	15.3%
Average household size	2.65	2.77
Mean commute (minutes)	27	26
Median year structure built	1982	1967